Julio Libonatti (5 July 1901 – 9 October 1981) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish ( masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines ...

football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former footballer who played as a forward for the

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

national teams. Born in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most po ...

, he started his career with

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Football in Argentina, ...

in 1917. In 1925, he became the first recorded trans-Atlantic

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

, when he moved to Italian club

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. With 150 total goals with Torino, he is the second most prolific scorer in the history of the Torinese club after Paolo Pulici (172). He won the

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' ( Italian for: "little shield") is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous se ...

with Torino in 1926–27 and 1927–28, although the first title was later revoked. Later in his career he also represented

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

and Libertas Rimini. Internationally, Libonatti won the 1921 South American Championship with Argentina. He later represented Italy and won the 1927–30 Central European International Cup.

Early life

He was born in

, Argentina into a Calabrian family.

Club career

Libonatti started his youth career with

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central () is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on December 24, 1889, by a group of railway workers, taking its name from the English ...

, but began his professional career with the other team of his hometown,

. His prolific goal-scoring and acrobatic game led to Libonatti becoming a crowd favourite, and he was nicknamed ''Matador''. In the summer of 1925, due to an agreement that allowed the sons of Italians to take advantage of dual nationality, he moved to

. Libonatti also soon became a fan favourite in Italy. In addition to his acrobatic skills, typical of Argentine players, Libonatti had a tactical intelligence that allowed him to offer spectacular mains balls (in the future they would be called assists) to his teammates. Torino's other forward,

Gino Rossetti Gino Rossetti (; 7 November 1904 – 15 May 1992) was an Italian football manager and former footballer who played as a forward. He jointly holds the record for the all-time most goals scored in a single Italian league season at 36 goals with T ...

would benefit the most from Libonatti's play. Behind the two forwards was Torino's playmaker,

Adolfo Baloncieri Adolfo Baloncieri (; 27 July 1897 – 23 July 1986) was an Italian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Critically regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Gianni Brera considered him one of the greate ...

. The three became known as the ''trio delle meraviglie'' (Trio of Wonders), and would bring Torino to win two Italian championships (one was revolved). In the 1928–29 season, the club lost a final against

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, but the attack managed to score 117 goals in 33 games. With the ''Granata'', Libonatti collected 241 appearances (239 in the league and 2 in

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity ...

), and scored 157 goals (150 in the league seven in cup competition). In January 1935, he left Torino for

, who thanks to his contribution were able to return to the top flight. In 1937, he was hired by the Libertas Rimini, where he held the dual role of manager and player.

International career

Libonatti first played with

, winning the 1921 South American Championship as the tournaments top scorer with three goals. He collected 15 caps and 8 goals with Argentina. He then played with

, Italy's first

Oriundo The term oriundo (; Italian plural ''oriundi'') is an Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese noun describing an immigrant in a country, whose ancestry is from that same country. It comes from the Latin verb ''oriri'' (''orior''), "be born", and is etymo ...

to play on the national team. His first appearance was on 28 October 1926, collecting a total of 18 caps and 15 goals.

Honours

Club

Torino * Divisione Nazionale/

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

: 1927–28 Genoa *

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

: 1934–35

International

Argentina * South American Football Championship:

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in Brazil. ** The Spanish liner ''Santa Isabel'' breaks ...

Italy * Central European International Cup: 1927–30; runner-up: 1931–32

Individual

* South American Football Championship top scorer:

(3 goals) * Central European International Cup top scorer: 1927–30 (6 goals) * Serie A – Top scorer: 1927–28 (21 goals)

References

External links

international records
at

rsssf The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Libonatti, Julio 1901 births 1981 deaths Footballers from Rosario, Santa Fe Association football forwards Argentine footballers Italian footballers Serie A players Serie B players Torino F.C. players Genoa C.F.C. players Newell's Old Boys footballers Argentina international footballers Italy international footballers Dual internationalists (football) Rimini F.C. 1912 players Copa América-winning players Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine people of Calabrian descent